Jama-Coaque Ceramic Traits in Coastal Colima, West Mexico?: A view from the Jama Valley, Coastal Ecuador

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Coastal Connections: Pacific Coastal Links from Mexico to Ecuador" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

In spite of a long tradition of scholarship dedicated to the theme of prehispanic maritime contacts between the Pacific coastal areas of Ecuador and Mesoamerica, most arguments for these contacts have been based on a wide variety of trait comparisons between ill-defined cultural sequences in the respective contact zones, often spanning multiple centuries. In this paper, I examine specific ceramic traits found in well-dated archaeological phases of the long Jama-Coaque cultural tradition of northern Manabí, Ecuador, and show when and how some of these traits appear in coeval archaeological contexts (ca. 450-650 CE) at two archaeological sites in coastal Colima, Mexico. Two vessel forms in particular will be examined: (a) shallow pedestal bowls (compoteras or cajetes); and (b) heavy ceramic seats or plates (asientos-platón) having either polypod supports or thick annular bases. Both of these vessel forms fall outside the canons of coastal Colima ceramic traditions and were correctly identified as intrusive by Mexican archaeologists. Comparisons of the nature and social complexity of the two contact areas are discussed and previous models of long-distance maritime interaction and exchange are reexamined in light of this specific example of maritime contact.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)   •
• Coastal Connections: Pacific Coastal Links from Mexico to Ecuador

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 22827